GTA Online’s Crackdown on Counterfeit Cash

Surprisingly, the boys behind Grand Theft Auto 5 at Rockstar aren't as big on illicitly obtained cash as we thought they were. GTA Online has recently resumed minutes ago after undergoing a 24 hour shutdown in order to zero in on a small group of players who were "generating and distributing game-breaking amounts of in-game cash." It looks like Rockstar condones vast amounts of money only if it was obtained through heists, not counterfeiting.

Over on Rockstar Newswire, the developer wrote about how it has taken notice of the detrimental effects that game-breaking methods of acquiring money have over their worlds' economies. Since property buying and management are integral parts of GTA Online, exploited money abuses the system and creates chaos for other players in the world. Players with exponentially bigger bank accounts can buy the highest hardware, the best rides and can cripple GTA Online's stock trading. Not to mention these guilty players are basically shoe-ins for winning races and would always carry the best equipment possible. Those who are privy to the GTA Online system would know that it has a long climb to the top in order to be able to afford such luxuries.

Rockstar has added the ability to report individuals that other players might suspect of exploiting or cheating. At the pause menu, simply go to the Online tab, select the person you and hit Report. The game then gives you options of why you would like to report this person, with exploiting being one of these choices.

Players who are caught can expect to be isolated in cheater pools/worlds where they would only interact with other cheaters. And the most extreme offenders are expected to be banned from GTA Online altogether. People who may have innocently received money from these people do not need to worry, the counterfeit in-game currency will simply be remove, but the innocent players and whatever they may have purchased will be left alone.